Cassidy Turley moves up by taking tower sublease

Commercial real estate firm Cassidy Turley is relocating its Charlotte office to the Duke Energy Center, taking a portion of the space originally intended for a national law firm that closed here.

Cassidy Turley will move into 11,000 square feet on the 34th floor of the 1.4 million-square-foot building, which opened this year at the corner of South Tryon and Stonewall streets uptown. The firm is relocating from 9,950 square feet of office space in the Charlotte Chamber building at 330 S. Tryon Street.

Formerly known as Colliers Pinkard, the real estate firm is taking a portion of the 35,000 square feet on the 34th and 35th floors that was leased by law firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal in 2008. Back then the building was the Wachovia Corporate Center, and Sonnenschein, which opened an office here, was anticipating major growth handling structured finance work for the banks. In 2009, the firm closed its Charlotte office, and Cassidy Turley has been marketing the space for sublease.

“I am excited about the path our company is taking and that this new space is representative of our future growth,” Rob Cochran, senior managing director of Cassidy Turley’s Charlotte office, said in a statement.

In March, Baltimore-based Colliers Pinkard and several other firms rebranded themselves as Cassidy Turley and broke their affiliation with Colliers International, an alliance of independently owned real estate firms. The firm’s local office opened in 1998 and has about 40 employees here.

Maxwell Hanks and Brad Grow of Cassidy Turley represented Sonnenschein on the sublease and will continue to market the full 35th floor of the building, which totals 24,000 square feet. Mike Dean, John Kelly, and David Dorsch, also of Cassidy Turley, represented their firm on the transaction. Childress Klein Properties represented the landlord, Wells Fargo & Co.

Law firm relocating

Rogers Townsend & Thomas, which purchased Charlotte law firm Kellam & Pettit earlier this year, is moving into new office space off Tyvola Road. Headquartered in Columbia, S.C., the firm has signed a lease for 26,000 square feet at the Coliseum Centre office park and will move from space on Coltsgate Road.

Campbell Walker of Lincoln Harris represented the law firm, and Mike Kemmet of Cassidy Turley represented the property owner, JP Morgan Investment Management. CB Richard Ellis has since taken over the leasing and management of the six-building park.